Archangel35757

@@DT85 -- glad you got it sorted out... @@DT85, @@Psyk0Sith, @@minilogoguy18, @@eezstreet : Concerning Carcass.exe and Assimilate.exe. So I downloaded your GitHub submission for Assimilate and have it compiling-- I cleaned up the existing warnings. It appears that the version Raven released was 2.1 used by Jedi Outcast (and ST:Voyager). The mouseover help still states ST:Voy (Star Trek:Voyager). The one question I have and would like to know... it seems that Assimilate also supports the 3ds Max native .ASE animation file format. Has anyone attempted to compile a new animation using the .ASE format? That would be huge as well, if we could get that to work... as another alternative to dotXSI. I imagine you'd have to use the version of Carcass from JO as well. I looked at the version of Assimilate released for JKA and it states version 2.5 and setup for JK3. Not sure what they did differently inside the code-- except compile with the JKA anims.h file. I have an idea to combine the JO and JA anims.h file into one massive anims.h and recompile and see how it goes-- also adding "ROOT" to the enum list to eliminate the "BAD:ROOT" notification from Assimilate. Comments?

@@DT85 -- I have a similar code snippet getting the texture in my ROFF2 Exporter... using TSTR (not WSTR). But the 3dsMax SDK has methods to convert from WSTR/MSTR to TSTR. I'll post it tomorrow.

@@DT85 -- I pulled up a SoF2 model in Modview (they're a little wierd to work with... .skl files and all)... and you're correct. All of those extra facial bones are in the SoF2 skeleton.

Isn't that error complaining that you're trying to assign the address of a parameter to WStr when I think it's expecting a WStr* ???

@@DT85 and @@eezstreet -- My thinking regarding the facial bones is this: All of the bones in the JO root.xsi are (including the unused ones from SOF2) exactly what is needed for a detailed Hi-Def facial rig. The JO/JA bones (since they use the same eight bones) will be color coded differently from the SOF2 bones. The additional SOF2 facial bones will also be on a separate layer (so they can be hidden). The facial rig GUI will have controls for all of the bones-- I can make it where the unique SOF2 bones and controls have an option to be hidden-- for those folks who only want to skin their mesh to the JO/JA bones. Or you don't have to skin your face to any facial bones... (like most released JKA models today-- it's up to the user). But I plan to generate additional facial animations for the major phonemes/visemes (in addition to the standard JKA "TALK" anims)... My goal is to have some kind of lipsync system setup... that generates the rough first pass on lipsyncing.

@@DT85 -- So I need to color the unused facial bones another unique color... and put them on a unique layer. But I plan to use all of the facial bones in my rig.

@@DT85 -- Those facial bones are generated from the JO Kyle root.xsi, so wouldn't that mean that something has to be weighted to them? IIRC, the JO stormtrooper skeleton has the same bones is JA. I'll take a deeper look at the root.xsi files when I get home from work today.

@@DT85 -- Aren't all those facial bones used by JO? I intend to use all of them in my facial rig. You can hide the JO bones if you only want to work with JA or vice versa.

The nub_bones (or "_eff" bones), are used potentially for IK chains... they're also useful for position referencing for some control objects. In my opinion they also help show the end of the fingers. But I could easily put them on their own layer so they could be hidden. I'm debating whether to release just the skeleton-- or the skeleton as part of a simple IK rig... until my complex rig is finished.

So here's the color scheme on the bone skeleton: The purple bones are JA unique bones (i.e., the rtail and ltail bones).The yellow bones are the JO unique bones.The cyan bones are common to both JO-JA skeletons.The pink bones are the motion and hang/hand tag bones.Any other color-scheme suggestions? ...I also fixed the visual discontinuities in the spine bones.

Looking at your first ref pic... the teeth seem to be a bit small and too thin. But it looks great. Keep up the good work.

@Eezstreetand others -- try 1024x768.

Any new on this? I noticed in the …\gamesource\anims.h file, they comment above the death anims that they mention being MD3, no?

Ok... so I have the Max6 bone skeleton sorted out and compiling a new root.xsi along with some original Raven dotXSI animations. Next week I'll upload it to the utilities section. For now you can skin/weight your mesh just fine to the exiting bone skeletons... since it doesn't require making a new root.xsi file. I know @@DT85 is adding some new bones so I want to chat with him first.

The bolt is linked to mesh_root and your mesh to stupidtriangle. I'm sure it shows up in the viewer you just have to zoom out. Change to simple interaction mode.

@@Boothand -- do your dotXSI root and animations play properly in the new XSI Viewer tool I uploaded to the Utilities file section?

@@Boothand -- do you need the equivalent of "Stupid Triangle Off" for vehicles like you do in characters?

3dsMax has an invisible Scene Root that exists.... remember the infamous "MaxSceneRoot" node the legacy exporter creates? It was just easier to have the code rename this offending node to "model_root"... actually now the new exporter gives the user the option to name it anything-- which may be useful for other game engines that use dotXSI... but may have different root name requirements.

Yes get rid of those two objects: XSISceneRoot & B:modelRoot. See the Carcass Error Guide: 42.) XSI Import failed, code = 4599 This error happened because the skin modifier is not on top, if you have set UV mapping coordinates on top of the skin modifier, move them down under the skin modifier. It is strongly recommended to UV map before you rig, collapse the stack so it's empty and then apply the skin modifier. ONLY the skin modifier should remain (on top).

@@Boothand-- IK doesn't belong in bone hierarchy; and controls shouldn't be either. They should remain separate (tie them to your bones using constraints. Yes, you need to unparent mesh_root & skeleton_root... and delete any model_root you created. The exporter creates the model_root and parents them automatically. You can animate with IK or procedural controllers/constraints and it will properly export your animation.

Hmmm... he looks a little too happy-- like he wants to play fetch .

@@Boothand -- What version of Max are you using? Yes, there's a flaw in the Max9+ betaR1 versions that may cause a crash ( for some people ), but it creates the file... it happens after the file is written and the plugin is closing. You must not have a model_root node in your scene because the exporter creates it. Just un-parent skeleton_root and mesh_root and delete your model_root... that's just the way the plugin works. I'm trying to get the final-release plugin finished and uploaded ASAP.

Ok... just to let everyone know. A number of 3ds Max bone skeletons floating around out there... have had bones that were accidently moved. As a result, if you try and compile a new root.xsi to combine with existing Raven dotXSI animations, Carcass will complain and report the offending bones that have bad BASEPOSE transforms. This is why @@DT85 was saying that he had to use the compile switch: -ignorebaseposedeviations ...in order to get his new root.xsi to compile. I have been in the process for a quite awhile, of building a complete, complex (yet user friendly) character rig for the Jedi Outcast/Jedi Academy skeletons. I used my validated skeleton to compile a new root.xsi, using the new dotXSI 3.0 Exporter. On my first Carcass compile attempt, Carcass reported that only the "leye" and "reye" bones had bad BASEPOSE transforms... so I fixed this (...but in Max9) and recompiled and everything worked perfectly! No need for any -ignorebaseposedeviations switch. Problem is ... I want this skeleton available to others back to version Max6... so yesterday and today, I have been re-validating my bone skeleton in the 3ds Max 6 trial software. Later tonight I will do the Carcass compiling to verify the skeleton is validated as good. When I'm finished, I plan to upload this validated 3ds Max bone skeleton to the Utilities section so 3ds Max users can use this one for skinning their character meshes. Stay tuned...

In addition to Blender... 3ds Max 5 (and up) and Softimage (and Softimage Mod Tool) also allow you to create new characters/creatures-- as well as their animations... these programs also work for the Humanoid character-- and making of new Humanoid animations. Recently (thanks to @@Xycaleth) Maya has been added into the mix-- at least for compiling static characters against the existing Ghoul2 GLA animation file... using his new FBX->to->GLM standalone converter tool.